Welcome Back to the Hellmouth
by Alyss Rose Heart
Summary: Angel makes it on the boat in Season 2 episode 13: Surprise and the ship starts its voyage before Spike and Drusilla's vampire minions make it to the docks and ambush Buffy. Now he's back, exactly two years after he left, only to find that not everything stayed the same on the Hellmouth. FULL SUMMARY INSIDE


Summary: Angel makes it on the boat in Season 2 episode 13: Surprise and the ship starts its voyage before Spike and Drusilla's vampire minions make it to the docks and ambush Buffy. Now he's back, exactly two years after he left, only to find that not everything stayed the same on the Hellmouth. Can he win Buffy back from the last person he ever expected Buffy to move on with before this wanna be army against the supernatural can put an end to all things supernatural in Sunnydale?

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Welcome Back to the Hellmouth

_Chapter One_

_Buffy sat at a random table at the Bronze, listening to her boyfriend's band fill the small club with music. She still couldn't believe the turn of events in the last few months. She and Oz had fought their attraction to one another in favor of not hurting Willow who surprised them both by giving them her blessing after leaving Oz for her now girlfriend, Tara. Never would she have guessed moving on with her best friend's ex two years after her ex had left her at the docks, a day before her seventeenth birthday, never to be heard from again. But here she was, smiling as Oz looked her way between songs, ready for the set to be finished so they could be near each other once more._

_ So content to bask in her new lover's gaze was she that it wasn't until he was in front of her that she was aware of his presence._

_ "Angel." She was in complete shock. In two years, she's heard not one thing of her vampire former lover and now, exactly two years later, he was standing in front of her, not far from where she'd last seen him. She looked behind him, back toward Oz, only to find he wasn't on the stage anymore but in the crowd, worming his way to her but still a good deal away. "You're – you're back."_

_ "Yeah," he responded as if answering a question though none were asked, his signature smile showing how relieved he was to see her still alive. "Happy birthday, Buff-"_

_ Suddenly Angel was turning to dust before her eyes, just like in her dream two years prior, except instead of Drusilla behind him, Riley, he Psychology T.A. stood just behind Angel stake in hand, dressed in the Initiative garb._

_ "It's your birthday, Summers?" he asked, a sarcastic smile creeping up on his face. "I guess that's as good a day as any to start this war." _

Buffy woke to her own scream sitting straight up in her bed in the dorm room she shared with Willow, suddenly glad her best friend was staying at her new girlfriend's dorm most nights and that Oz was out of town for a gig with his band.

She wiped the sweat off her neck, pulled her sheets back, and walked to her closet, pulling out some workout clothes to change into. There were still a few hours before sunrise, but she knew she wouldn't get back to sleep so she might as well get in a couple extra hours of patrol before she had to get ready for class. The dream had shaken her to her core. Though she's have several similar ones in the recent weeks, this was the first one to have Angel star in it. She'd stopped dreaming of Angel just over a year ago when she had decided to move on from her former lover and she would work herself so hard that by the time she got to bed after patrol her body and mind was too exhausted to dream, unless the dream was of prophetic nature and snuck through. Normally, in this dream Oz, Willow, or Tara would be the one to lose their life to Riley or one of his Initiative buddies on some random, so this change, that it was Angel that was killed on the night before her birthday, a day that was just a few days away, was a major change, one she'd have to discuss with Giles and the gang. But for now, due to the earliness of the hour, she's take her frustration out on the few vampires not smart enough to stay away from the supernatural hating campus that was U.C. Sunnydale.

* * *

Buffy was pleasantly surprised when she walked into her dorm room, to find Oz sitting on her bed waiting for her.

"You're home of the early," she said, a natural smile gracing her lips. Moving forward to hug her boyfriend, a gesture the werewolf happily returned.

"I wanted to surprise you with an in person wake up call," he replied, lips hovering just above her ear. "Hence the early factor."

Buffy pulled back, a pout gracing her normal peaceful features. "Sorry I ruined your surprise. Oz shook his head before leaning forward and giving her a quick peck on the lips to erase her pout.

"Another dream?" he asked, glossing over his failed attempt to surprise his girlfriend in his normal to the point manner.

Buffy nodded solemnly, the dream rising back to the forefront of her mind quickly though. "This one was different than the others though. I was going to call Giles to arrange a time for a meeting later today before letting Xand, Cordy, Will, and Tara know about it when I got from my extra patrol but I got distracted with the pleasant surprise that is you."

"Different how? Never mind, you'll tell me later. Go, call Giles and everyone else," Oz ordered while detangling himself from her arms. "Then we are skipping class in favor of a morning nap, since it looks like we are both in need of some z's."

Buffy kissed his cheek before turning toward the room's phone to call the gang, smiling at how well her man knew her.

* * *

_Later, at Giles's apartment_

"Are you sure the dreams are of prophetic nature?" Giles asked Buffy after she had finished telling them of the dreams that had been plaguing her.

"I wasn't until this morning after a similar dream, except, the person who died wasn't any of the normal three," Buffy answered honestly sharing a look with Oz, whom she had shared every detail of the newest dream with before they had left her dorm. "And there was a specified date, the day before my birthday."

"The-the-the normal three being," Tara began, her nervous stutter getting the better of her, "Wi-Wi-Willow, Oz, and – and myself?"

Buffy smiled sadly at her newest friend, nodding at the dirty blond young Wicca. "Yes. But those felt more like nightmares, less like a Slayer dream. We all knew a war was coming, Professor Walsh made that very clear. Those dreams were more like my fears of you guys getting hurt because you're in Sunnydale, with me, coming forward as dreams to force me to deal. This morning's dream was different. It gave me three bits of information: when the war is coming, someone will die, and, well, um, someone is coming back into town."

Buffy looked around at the people around her, most of which had been with her since he left. She'd only lost one member of her core group in the two years since then, and he'd been new and forced upon her when the Watcher's Council had fired Giles for his affection for her; he hadn't been ready to be an active Watcher, something that had been proven when he hadn't survived the Mayor's ascension, after which she had threatened to quit if the Council sent another Watcher. "Kendra called earlier this afternoon," she continued, "she's had similar dreams and her watcher and the Council have agreed she is more need at this Hellmouth than the one in Cleveland and her plane leaves in the morning; she'll be here by the end of the day tomorrow."

"Okay, Buffy, if you think that's best," Jenny Calendar, Giles's gypsy fiancée, offered in agreement that the younger slayer be brought into this battle. "But you haven't told us who your dream seems to be centered on. Who's coming back?"

Before Buffy had the chance to respond though, the doorbell rang, and being the closest to the door, she got up to answer the interruption. Opening the door, she almost laughed as she came face to face of the person whose name she was about to utter but soon that amusement turned into undeniable rage, which she expressed in typical girl fashion, a slap in the face. "Welcome back to the Hellmouth, _Angel_."

* * *

Angel rubbed his cheek as he entered Giles's apartment, still shocked at Buffy's less than warm welcome. Sure, he knew she'd be upset with him, two years and no contact from the person you love would do that to any girl, whether they knew to expect it or not. But her slapping him was not what he had pictured, at least not in front of everyone. It shocked him even more when she went toward the red headed male sitting on the couch, who opened his arms in welcome as she sat on his lap.

"I tried the library first, only to find the school had been blown up," he said to the mostly placid faced group, recognizing all but one girl in the room. "I guess I should have called first."

"Well what do you expect, Angel?" Cordelia asked from the arm chair she sat in, arms wrapped around Xander who sat on the floor in front of the chair between her legs. "Her to fall into your arms when she first saw you? Not hardly. It's been two years of no news. For all we knew you could have been dead."

"Cordy-"

"No, Will, he needs to hear this. He left her to deal with Spike and Drusilla on her own and then a year later an ascension and through all of that not a peep from him. I'm surprised all she did was slap him."

"Cordy, I can fight my own battles," Buffy smiled at her sometimes friend, her head never moving from its place on the shoulder of the man, Oz?, the guy Willow had brought to that ill-fated party two years ago?, as she did so. "I'm with Oz now, Angel. Except it or get the hell out of dodge cause I have far too much to deal with without you causing anymore drama.

"Buffy, I'm-" Buffy's façade cracked before his eyes before he could utter his full apology.

"I – I can't do this right now." She got up, hand still fully attached to Oz's, and pulled him straight out the front door before anyone could speak a word to stop them.

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**A/N: Okay guys here's yet another new story. It's not a crossover since Angel never left for L.A. and therefore doesn't have all the same characters that his series has. Cordelia and Xander never broke up. Oz never left Willow to try to get control of his wolf side but Willow does still fall for Tara. Buffy and Riley never happen (I have never liked that pairing) instead Buffy and Oz, after receiving Willow's blessing, are a couple. Since Angel made it on to the boat, Jenny was never killed. More details as chapters come. Reviews and follows are always welcome. **

**You Know You Love Me,**

**XOXO,**

**Alyss**


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